Astonishingly, despite the galeforce (and I do mean, galeforce) winds rattling the house at present, the chook shed is still there. The inside is a little damp, and the hen has moved herself her chicks and her eggs to a drier spot, but it is still upright, so far.

Judging from the rattles on the roof I will need to sort that our fairly quickly if things keep up in this way though.

It having been pouring with rain this morning i got stuck into the tapestry once more and was busy beavering away when Carol called in for a cuppa. She had to go into town and I had the keys to the quilting room so I went with her to pick up some wadding she needed. We decided, since we were in town and both have been a little down in the dumps of late because of the behaviour of others, we would stay in town for a cuppa which we did. And we had a big slice of chocolate cake and cream to go with it, lol.

Then home once more to batten down the hatches, feed the chooks and settle down for the night with some more embroidering to go on with. The depressing thing is that despite having worked on it for some time today, the only progress i have made can be distinguished by the bright blue, grey blue and white bits ...

Last night i had some problems convincing Smidgen to come indoors. I could see him at the bottom of the lane, but he was not coming more than a few paces when I called. Then he would turn around and sit down again. I stood and watched for a while and he seemed to be behaving rather oddly, rolling over and exposing his tummy and generally being cute and appealing. Then I noticed that about five metres from him was another cat - the neighbour's. It was sitting upright and watching Smidgen, but suddenly turning its head to one side. Between them was what appeared to be a lump of dirt. It took me a while, but eventually I realised that there were no lumps of dirt there, and even if there were, it would not be that colour. So I went down to investigate and discovered this:
At first I assumed it was covered in fleas, then realised these were ants - it had its nose in an antheap and was scoffing its dinner. So I picked Smidgen up and took him indoors and left it to its own devices (the neighbour's cat flees at the approach of humans).

I have noticed the last few times i have been down the back that I seem to come back with very wet socks. Now I know we have had a bit of rain, but you do expect your Blunnies to cope with a bit of wet grass without leaving your socks wringing wet. That is, of course, unless they look like this:

There was a time blunnies lasted a good five to eight years, but apparently that was before they were made in China. Will have to investigate some better work boots as these clearly will not last terribly much longer ... Sigh. Still, I guess they will make attractive herb pots for the back door when the terrace is finally paved ...